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Topic: Whirlpooling (Read 1235 times)

Didn't see this topic covered in any posts (I looked as far back as June). Who whirlpools? How?

Looking at the last Zymurgy issue on hop-bursting IPAs. The article suggests a whirlpool at flameout for hop additions by stirring. How long should that be? I've seen some newer brew kettles with a whirlpool outlet. Can I create the same effect by placing a hose along the edge of the wort kettle and recirculating with a pump?

I whirlpool by stirring with a long spoon for a few minutes. Then letting it sit for 10. It seems most of the settling happens in the 10 minutes when the liquid is swirling slowly. Maybe the speed is too high and keeps kicking up trub? Or maybe the liquid movement is too irregular when using a spoon?

You can do what you suggested too.

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Delmarva United Homebrewers - President by inverse coup - former president ousted himself.AHA Member since 2006BJCP Certified: B0958

I whirlpool by stirring with a long spoon for a few minutes. Then letting it sit for 10. It seems most of the settling happens in the 10 minutes when the liquid is swirling slowly. Maybe the speed is too high and keeps kicking up trub? Or maybe the liquid movement is too irregular when using a spoon?

You can do what you suggested too.

This is how I do it also but yes, if you can recirculate you can whirlpool that way as well. My single tier brewer friends recirculate through their chiller and back creating a whirlpool and get a real crystal clear wort

if you do a search for 'whirlpool' you will get several interesting threads. not trying to dismiss your query - but there is a lot of good information out there on this forum.

using a hose probably won't be all that easy to implement. i originally bent a piece of copper to use as a 'return arm' for my whirlpool and hooked a hose up to that, clamping the copper in place so it would stay put.

a good swirl with a paddle or spoon will likely be as beneficial.

I installed a ball valve and return arm on my new kettle because it was easier and I had the parts available. Goes through both counterflow chillers and then returns into the kettle through the whirlpool arm. The force is not as great as I would like though.

timing, temperature and speed are all variables that are subjective to the brewer. I whirlpool all beers - knock the temp down to <180df 15 min with my pump on and then 15 minutes without any pump to settle. For hoppy beers, i have been experimenting with leaving the temp up closer to boiling and whirlpooling for 30-45 minutes prior to settling and chilling.

« Last Edit: December 09, 2013, 02:41:30 PM by blatz »

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The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have.

I stir to get a good whirlpool going, and then start recirculating while I chill which keeps the whirlpool going. When it is cool enough I run it into the fermenter. My recirculation is just the hose from the pump running tangentially into the top of the kettle and clamped in place.

It sounds like your principally after the hop aroma, rather than necessarily clarifying the wort. I just did an IPA somewhat similar to the hop-bursted ones discussed in the recent Zymurgy article. I simply dumped the 3 oz post-boil addition into the kettle, gave it a stir, covered it and let it rest for 20-minutes before chilling. It was cold and windy out, and the temp got down to about 170, but I think the simple post boil rest probably did its thing. It's still finishing out, so I can't say much about the final results yet. I would only add that during transfer to the secondary, the young beer tasted more bitter than I expected based on the software calculations. That's a relative thing obviously, but if I do feel that post-boil hop rest added notable bittering.

certainly does - isomerization still occurs above 180df, albeit slower. there is still a lot of debate as to what utilization to use, so it'd be up to your own trial and error.

that's why i drop my kettle temp to about 175df before whirlpooling as i want to get the 'hop steep' but still maintain the bitterness levels consistent. am personally still toying around with what I feel is a good utlization if keeping it above 200df, but I haven't done any at that temp lately.

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The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have.

That's a relative thing obviously, but if I do feel that post-boil hop rest added notable bittering.

That's part of why I started doing hop stands at 185-190F. I don't care about extracting more hop bitterness from a hop stand, and you get much less bitterness at this temp, and, if anything, I feel that hop aroma and flavor are a bit better. YMMV.